From yesterday's Oklahoman:
The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission filed suit in federal court Wednesday against local television station KOKH-25, alleging racial and gender discrimination against one of its on-air reporters.
The lawsuit accuses KOKH LLC and parent company Sinclair Broadcast Group Inc. of paying crime reporter Phyllis Williams a lower salary than comparable white female reporters and male reporters of all races.
Williams, who is black, has worked at the Fox affiliate since it began news operations in 1996.
The lawsuit also alleges Williams was not offered an employment contract until several months after she filed a discrimination charge with the commission in 2005. Rebecca Stith, a senior trial attorney in the commission's St. Louis, Mo., office, said other reporters at KOKH routinely were offered employment contracts.